RUMINANTIA. 191 
C. givafa, F, Cuv. Mammif. (The Giraffe.) Which is con- 
fined to the deserts of Africa, and has short grey hair sprinkled 
with fawn coloured angular spots, and a small fawn coloured 
and grey mane. It is the tallest of all animals, for its head is 
frequently elevated eighteen feet from the ground. Its disposi- 
tion is gentle, and it feeds on leaves. Heliodorus gives a good 
description of it, and one or two were brought into Italy in the 
middle century. Several have lately been sent to Europe from 
Egypt.(1). The ‘ 
RUMINANTIA WITH HOLLOW HORNS 
Are more numerous than the others, and we have been 
compelled to divide them into genera from characters of but 
little importance, drawn from the form of their horns and the 
proportions of their different parts. To these M. Geoffroy 
has advantageously added those afforded by the substance of 
the frontal prominence or the bony nucleus of the horn. 
ANTILOPE.(2) 
The substance of the bony nucleus of the horns of the Antilopes is 
solid, and without pores or sinus, like the antlers of the Stag. They 
resemble the Stags moreover in the lightness of their figure and 
their swiftness. - It is a very numerous genus, which it has been 
found necessary to divide, and principally according to the form 
of the horns. 
a. Horns annulated, with a double curvature directed forwards, inwards 
or upwards. 
4. dorcas, L.; Buff. XII, xxiii. (The Gazelle.) Round, 
large and black horns, and the size and graceful shape of the 
Roebuck; light fawn colour above; white beneath; a brown 
band along each flank; a tuft of hair on each knee, and a deep 
pouch in each groin. It inhabits the north of Africa, and lives 
in large herds, which form a circle when they are attacked, 
presenting their horns at all points. It is the usual prey of the 
(1) M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, from some differences in the spots, and in the 
curvature of the cranium of the few individuals in Europe, thinks that the Giraffe 
of Nubia and Abyssinia is not of the same species as that fromthe Cape. 
(2) This name is not ancient ; it is a corruption of Antholops, a word found in 
Eustathius, who wrote in the time of Constantine, and which seems to refer to the 
beautiful eyes of the animal. The common Gazelle was well described by lian 
under the name of Dorcas, which is properly that of the Roebuck. He calls it the 
Dorcas of Lybia. Gazel is an Arabic word. 
